Natural breeding thread

[Skyeknight]

I'm no expert here, and probably shouldn't answer but here goes....
Just like with everything in nature including humans. There's no limitations to what a species is capable of doing to their offspring according to their mindset.

Some reasoning I've read that hens can be perfect sitters but once the chicks appear the hens are confused at this, viewing them as intruders or not theirs. Almost like trying to stuff day olds under a non broody hen.

In most cases these will be seen as intruders and killed. There are of course exceptions and rare cases I haven't experienced yet.

Just want to add to this that going broody and raising chicks are completely different things.

I know that in research it has been proven that sheep that are first time mothers make more mistakes with raising their lambs and clearly show their inexperience compared to sheep that have raised lambs before. Getting pregnant is fairly easy but that doesn't mean they know how to raise their offspring. I assume the same is true in basically all other species.

Better not place young chicks with a broody unprepared. It can go wrong very easily.

I wholeheartely agree with this. This will only work if the hen thinks they are hers offspring or very closely related to her. Most of the time this will not work because why would she spend so much time and finding food raising chicks that aren't hers? They are actually a threat to what she thinks are her own chicks, since they would be directly competing for resources.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Most of the time this will not work because why would she spend so much time and finding food raising chicks that aren't hers? They are actually a threat to what she thinks are her own chicks, since they would be directly competing for resources.

But yet they will brood eggs from another breed or species and raise them when they hatch. I think there's more to it.

 

[Skyeknight]

But yet they will brood eggs from another breed or species and raise them when they hatch. I think there's more to it.

Ofcourse she will since she thinks those are her chicks because they hatched under her. This is a big problem with hatching eggs instead of being pregnant, which the cuckoo bird as a well known example exploits heavily. But as long as her own eggs are intact she shouldn't think too much of it. The cuckoo bird leaves the eggs of the nest owner intact. If the nest owner sees predated eggs they know it's not a safe nesting place, so they would change spots.

Chickens try to lay their eggs in very well hidden spots, since to them these have the potential to be their very valuable offspring. But we humans actively take our chickens eggs away. Maybe this is why in free ranging it's relatively normal to have a hen go missing and reappear with chicks a few weeks later. Broodiness is the result of genetics, evironment and hormones. I think the presence of these hormones keeps your chicken broody as long as she has eggs, no matter if they look like hers. Which I agree is actually very weird, maybe she does think the eggs are hers or a family members since they are in her "hidden" spot?

I would love to hear other people's opinion or sources on this and why it works.

 

[Perris]

How do you know the chicks aren't just dying overnight from poor nutrition?

Early hatchers can die of dehydration before the hen brings them off the nest because she is waiting for the rest to hatch; I had one apparently lost that way last year. Also they can die naturally shortly after hatch for a variety of other reasons, besides inadequate nutrition in the chick's own yolk or of its breeding parents (especially of the hen who laid the egg in question). For example some are lost to congenital mistakes, or being trampled by a clumsy heavy hen. Some of these reasons apply also to incubated eggs, and artificial incubation has another set of risks e.g. wrong temperature or humidity, which does not normally occur under a broody.

 

[Perris]

I would love to hear other people's opinion or sources on this and why it works.

I agree but I think it should be in another thread dedicated to that topic, not this thread, which it risks derailing.

 

[ManueB]

So it differs case-by-case but is the safest bet to incubate and/or raise chicks in a brooder, and then introduce to the flock?

I dont know whether it's safest.I've only seen two hatches with broodies. And I understand that people can have many reasons to prefer incubators, because of their set-up, their breeding goals, ect. But if you have a choice, would you say it's better to raise a baby of any specie in a box by a member of another specie, or with a mother of it's own kind ?

Are there any indications as to whether a hen will be a good setter/mother or do you just find out as it happens?

I agree with what others have said that you can't tell before.
But..here elderly people used to raise a specific lineage of bantams especially to be broodies. And I've heard a few times that it's done in other places in other countries too. So that would mean those people believe there would be some sort of genetic component to it, or maybe just something transmitted through education.
One of those bantams hatched the first chicks we had here and as far as I'm qualified to tell, she was a good broody and raised them perfectly well.

 

[Altairsky]

I raised both with broody and with incubator.
According to my experience a good broody is a lot better than incubator, mostly because chicks are already integrated. It's really hard to integrate incubator chicks to an existing flock, sometimes they never integrate and you end up with 2 separate flocks that tolerate each other.
Chicks hatched by a mother are already part of the flock. My flock will help raise chicks all together if I let them hatch.
Incubator chicks? A nightmare.
The biggest advantage of hatching chicks in incubator is that they often are a lot more tame and sweet than those hatched by a hen.